POLAND: Dissolute Hangman

The Ministry of Justice discharged and
publicly denounced National Hangman Maciejewski, last week, and
replaced him by one of his former assistants, a comparative novice at
knotting nooses.

Poles under sentence to hang were worried. They know that a noose
smartly drawn up (with knot close under one ear of the condemned) will
bring instant, pain less death, by snapping the neck. Such have been
the nooses of experienced Hangman Maciejewski, a onetime medical
student. On the other hand, a loose and slovenly noose brings slow
strangulation, lingering agony.